A Ninja Lost in Brockton Bay
by Mikowmer
Summary: Genji wakes up in the middle of Brockton Bay. He doesn't know where he is, and there are gaps in his memory... along with some additional knowledge that really shouldn't be there... What is going on?
1. Hell in a Handcart

I woke up to the sound of... Nothing. Which is actually a really disconcerting sound to wake up to. But then again, the human mind depends on sound to be able to remain aware of the area while not looking. So, when a sense is completely removed... Well, I'd say you can imagine how unsettling it is, but unless you've experienced it... You get the point.

Anyway, if having no sound was troubling, having no sight was even more so. And being unable to breath... I was on the verge of panic when everything came online.

Huh. Let's see. Sit rep. Lying on the ground, in some alley somewhere, slightly sore, with the ground immediately around me lit by a soft green light.

Right. I stood up. Rather smoothly, I might add. Never moved that smoothly in my life. And the green light on the ground mov- no, the green light is coming from... Whatever this suit is I'm wearing. Huh. An armoured suit with green lights. And... Swords on my back? What am I, some sort of Sci-Fi Ninja? I raised my gloved hands, and shuriken easily slid between my fingers from where they were hidden.

... Yep. Sci-Fi Ninja.

And... For some reason, I knew exactly how my suit worked, and how much I could potentially improve it. Which, considering how much of it was actually armoured suit, and how much was... Other stuff I'd rather not think about right now, I decided I'd better try to figure out where I was before I lost my lunch from shock.

I looked at the nearest wall. I reckon... two, three storeys? I took a leap, and scaled it easily, before landing on the roof in a perfect three-point landing.

What.

I have never done that before in my life, and yet... I did it on the first go. Well. Anyway, I look around, and realise that a glowing armoured suit is very conspicuous. Especially at night. Only reason I knew it was night were the street lamps being on. I apparently had perfect night vision thanks to my suit as well. Go figure. Still, need to turn them off- oh... Apparently the suit responds to mental commands as well.

Still, that left me on the roof of a building in an unknown city, with no idea of where to go next. So, I started jumping from rooftop to rooftop. As one does when they want to get anywhere quickly, and is certainly a normal thing for me to do.

... Oh, who am I kidding, all it does is add more questions. I haven't even considered how I'm going to get home from here yet, although that's probably academic at this point due to the fact that I have honestly no idea where here is.

Pausing for a moment, I look around. Hey, there's a group of people down there, maybe I could ask... Them... Oh dear. That's not good. Guy wearing a dragon mask, covered in dragon tattoos... Other guys wearing red and green clothing, wielding various firearms, swords, and is that a guy with a baseball bat? Seriously? Still, I believe I now know where Here is, and I think staying Here is a Very Bad Idea. So, I turn away, and make to leave, when I hear those fateful words:

"…the children, just shoot."

I freeze. Now I know for sure where, and more importantly, I know exactly when. As Lung finished his pep talk, I looked around and spotted a dark figure hiding on another roof, with a cloud of bugs around her.

Well, this just went to hell in a handcart.


	2. CHS: Chronic Hero Syndrome

This was... Not good, to say the least. Taylor, or rather Skitter, over there was about to make the worst decision of her life: Deciding to attack Lung.

Lung.

The guy who fights Endbringers to a standstill. (Although, he'd probably still get trounced if they stopped sandbagging, but who cares?) Still, if I don't intervene soon, those bugs will descend, and all hell will break loose.

Well, if there's one thing Skitter and I have in common, it's Chronic Hero Syndrome. Let's do this.

I very deliberately scuff my foot on the roof. What, you thought I'd go in all swords swinging and shuriken flying? What sort of idiot do you think I am? That's Lung!

Below me, Lung instantly stops and looks in my direction. So does everyone else, wondering why their leader has stopped and what he is staring at.

Good, step one: Gain their attention, complete. Step two: Get both me and bug idiot over there out of danger, in progress. Step three: ??? Step four: Profit?

... Er... So not such a good plan in hindsight. Oh well.

Lung decides to open with discourse. "You are not the first assassin sent to kill me, and you will not be the last."

... Why am I getting flashbacks?

I can see the gang members getting agitated at Lung's words, so I decide to turn my lights back on before Miss Escalation does something incredibly stupid. I follow this up with leaping off the building and landing in front of the group with perfect silence.

"You believe I have been sent here to kill you?" I pause. My voice sounds... Different. Robotic. Asian. I guess I'll need to take a long hard look in the mirror later. I continue before Lung has the opportunity to reply. "I have not. In fact, I have no intention of killing you. I am merely here to stop you from killing others." And, I add to myself, to stop a certain Queen of Escalation from escalating too far.

My words give Lung pause, and he tenses up slightly. He must have been letting of some heat as several of his men edge away from him. Then he speaks again. It's cold, quiet, and menacing.

"Who are you to tell me what to do? I am Lung, The Dragon of Kyushu."

I decide this needs a bit of humour, and so I strike a pose. "I am... GREEN CYBORG NINJA DUDE!!"

Silence. Glorious silence. I can see that every single person in front of me has a look of confusion and utter disbelief on their face. Damn. Wish I had a camera. Oh, wait, does this suit have a camera?

Snap*

Yes it does! Alright, moving on before I get roasted alive. "What, no applause? No cowering in fear? What do I have to do to get some respect around here?" Still nothing, although I'm starting to see more people edge away from Lung. "Look, I'm sorry, but it's so hard to come up with a decent Hero Name these days. I mean, all the good ones are take-"

Then, Lung speaks again. He may have been quiet, but I could still see a few of his men flinching at times.

"You dare to insult me? To dishonour me in front of my men? You-"

I straightened up at the mention of honour. For some reason, it insults me. "You don't have the slightest idea of honour."

Lung stopped shouting. I had just very deliberately insulted him in front of his men. As he stepped forward, I continued.

"The kids you spoke about, what did they do, exactly, to earn your ire?" I knew the answer, but I really wanted the dragon in front of me to keep his attention on me. He was already noticeably larger, and when he spoke, his voice was becoming more gravelly.

"The Undersiders robbed one of my Casinos."

"And so you would kill them in retaliation?"

Lung scoffed. "They brought dishonour upon my Casino, and my men. They will pay," He said, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

I shook my head. "No, you already brought dishonour to yourself, by only serving your own greed. I see no respect in you for the men beneath you; they are merely pawns to you. The businesses your gang bully for protection money, with the requirement that they serve the ABB first, are being treated with disrespect by you and your men. It's a cycle. And you're only perpetuating it." I stare straight into his eyes. "The Undersiders haven't dishonoured you. You've already done that to yourself."

If Lung was angry before, he was furious now. On some of the fresher faced men around him, I could see doubt. However, that doubt wasn't allowed to become Drop My Weapon and Surrender for What is Right Syndrome, as Lung spoke one more time.

"Kill him."

As I saw the men ready their weapons, I reached for the wakizashi by my side, and pulled shuriken into my hand. The motion caused them to hesitate, before Lung bellowed out one more time. "KILL HIM!!"

As one, they fired. In the space that it took for the bullets to travel to me, I had already drawn the shorter of my two swords, as I proceeded to successfully deflect each and every single one. As their clips ran dry, many eyes widened. I made eye contact with Lung one more time, as I returned my shorter sword to its sheath. A thought crossed my mind about how I managed to pull that feat off, but I pushed it to the back of my mind. I had one goal now: Incapacitate every single person in front of me, except for Lung.

"My turn."


	3. Duel of the Dragons

"My turn."

Taylor could only watch on in awe as the ninja cyborg proceeded to literally run circles around the ABB. This guy was an expert. But a thought occurred to her: if he was this good, why hadn't people heard of him? From the skimming of the Wikis she had done prior to her first outing, there was no mention of a Green Cyborg Ninja Dude anywhere...

Admittedly, she did only look in the Brockton Bay part of the wiki in any great detail, but she did glance through the major heroes and villains in other cities as well.

Turning her attention back to the fight below, Green Dude was leaping between people, slashing with the shorter sword by his side and throwing shuriken from his hand, and somehow managing to not kill anyone. Every cut produced a scratch, every throw pierced through clothing and trapped people to walls. Eventually, someone had his belt cut, causing his pants to drop.

... Well... Taylor certainly didn't know that ABB members actually liked Looney Tunes...

And then Green Dude spoke again. "Ooh, that's gotta be embarrassing..." Somehow, he had ended up right beside Lung, which startled everyone including Taylor. "Well, anyway, Lung and I kinda need a private 'chat', so I certainly won't hold it against you if you decide to run off now. Although I'm not so sure about the Big Guy here-"

Lung moved quickly, and without warning. Green Dude had been smashed into a wall by the punch, but he quickly regained his feet, and reached for the larger sword on his back.

"You will die for what you have done today." Lung spoke the words with cold certainty, although it was deepened by the beginnings of his transformation. Taylor knew that the new hero had no hope against Lung, and prepared her swarm to distract him. All of the gang members had fled the scene already, so she didn't need to split it up.

Apparently, Green Dude had noticed, because he had stopped inching his sword from its sheath, and dropped his hand to his side. Did this guy have a death wish?

And then he spoke again. "Why do you fight? Is it so that you can find the ultimate enemy, prove that you're the strongest of them all?"

The fact that his opponent was talking again seemed to cause Lung to halt for a moment.

"What does it matter to you?"

"The world is crumbling around us. You are one of the most powerful parahumans in the world, yet you do nothing to stop it. Imagine what you could achieve if you sought to rebuild the world instead of destroy it with your greed and violence."

Lung chuckled, and took a step forward. Taylor moved her swarm to be ready to drop on him the moment he moved to attack Green Dude. "You're nothing but a wide-eyed idealist. This is the real world. Things don't go the way they do in the stories your father told you."

Green Dude didn't even look fazed, although it was hard to tell with that helmet on. "Maybe. But I believe everyone has the capacity to do both good and bad. The world is on the cusp of great change, Lung. It could succumb to the destruction being wrought across it, or it could rise up from the ashes of the Endbringers and Villains that have so long been driving everyone into despair. It is time to pick a side. I would suggest that you choose wisely."

And then he held up his hand, and disappeared in a cloud of smoke, leaving only a single feather behind.

Lung certainly didn't look happy. He stalked off in the opposite direction to where Taylor was hiding, towards the Boat Graveyard. Releasing a breath she didn't know she was holding, she made her way down the fire escape, and started walking back home.

Taylor went over the fight in her mind. At any point, Green Dude could have slipped and killed one of them. But his precision was that he didn't even seriously harm anyone.

And anyone with that sort of precision could only be either very lucky, or a veteran with many years of experience fighting other people. And considering how well made his suit was, and how smooth his movements were, the latter was the more likely option.

And if even he ran from Lung, then what was she thinking? At many points, Taylor had been a hairsbreadth away from dropping her swarm on Lung. Considering Lung's regeneration, all that would have done would have been to anger him further.

She was so caught up in her thoughts, she almost didn't notice the open warehouse door she was passing by with a green light inside. Glancing around to make sure no one was following her, she entered.

She entered what was apparently once an office for a small tech company that had been abandoned long ago. The door into the warehouse proper was closed, but sitting cross legged in the middle of the floor facing away from the door was the man she had just been so caught up with. She was about to turn around and leave him to his apparent meditations, when he spoke up.

"Welcome."

Taylor froze. "Er... Hi."

"I was hoping to talk to you about tonight. There's not many people who would be willing to go up against Brockton Bay's toughest villain with only insects and spiders at her beck and call to save a bunch of kids."

Taylor was immediately on edge. "How do you know about my powers?"

The man in front of her chuckled. "It was kind of obvious when there was a massive swarm blocking out the moon and stars. I'm a little surprised no one else noticed. Although, people don't tend to look up, either." He got up in one smooth motion, and turned around to face her. "I'm Genji."

Taylor hesitated. "I... Haven't actually come up with a cape name yet."

'Genji' shrugged. "No matter. I'll just call you Bug Idiot then."

She sputtered. "Wh- What?! Why?"

"Because while there are few people who would be willing to go up against Lung, there are even fewer idiotic enough to actually do it when they have a choice," he scolded. "Tell me, how close were you to dropping that massive swarm of 'death' and 'pain' on top of Lung's head?" Taylor was silent. "Thought so. It is incredibly unlikely that without outside help you would have survived that fight. So, next time you wish to ambush someone, actually make sure that you can ambush them, okay?"

Taylor could only meekly nod, looking at her feet. She didn't even hear Genji move towards her, as he lifted her chin to look into his... Eye-line. "Hey, perk up. Despite its apparent weakness, you have a very versatile power. Learn how to use it creatively. I'll even teach you some of what I know so that next time you go into a fight, you'll know exactly what you're capable of. You didn't die and you didn't reveal yourself, so you can have a fresh start next time. In fact, the only people who know you were even there tonight are you, me, and the idiots currently hiding behind the door who don't realise that discretion is the better part of valour."

It took Taylor a moment to realise what Genji had said. When she did, her eyes widened behind her mask as she whipped around. Standing there, having just stepped out from behind the doorway, were four people and a massive monster that barely resembled a dog. The one in a black leotard with purple highlights had a smug grin on her face.

"Oh, this is certainly going to be interesting," she said.


End file.
